I have more or less exhausted all of the eateries in Middlebury.  Now I want to look at the food in the surrounding area.  Specifically in Burlington.  Burlington is a great place for food; they have countless options.  Middlebury has plenty of local places that are very good, but very few chains (in fairness, Burlington probably does have a good deal of good local places, but I don’t have an inside scoop so I don’t know them).  There is one local place that I know is tremendous.  Al’s French Frys (“Frys” not a typo) is tremendous.  It is a very old school restaurant.  You walk in and wait in line, then order and pay before getting your food.  Then you continue in line and watch them cook your food right in front of you.  The burgers and hot dogs and fries and shakes and chicken sandwiches and steak sandwiches are all delicious.  And for a very fair price.  The burgers are tremendous, and they roast the buns to perfection.  I highly recommend it.

Another restaurant in Burlington that is phenomenal is Buffalo Wild Wings.  Obviously it is a chain restaurant, but it is in Burlington, and it is great.  Buffalo Wild Wings is just a genius idea: it focuses on wings and has hundreds of TVs.  And hundreds is not really an exaggeration.  When you are in there, if feels like there are hundreds of TVs.  And we haven’t even gotten to the food yet.  The chicken sandwiches are very good, but the place is obviously known for its wings.  They have both boneless and regular wings, but I would suggest regular.  Buffalo Wild Wings has a ridiculous amount of sauces as well that you can choose from, and you can taste test all of them if you want to.  They bring out the sauces, and give you french fries to dip them in (the fries aren’t as good as Al’s, but still good).  Genius idea.

Another great Burlington restaurant is Olive Garden.  I have already mentioned the Olive Garden lunch at Atwater that I love, but obviously the restaurant itself does things a little better.  Another chain like Buffalo Wild Wings, at Olive Garden you get unlimited breadsticks and salad just to start.  The pasta meals they have are amazing, and they have anything you could think of.  I haven’t been as much as I should, I love the place.  A Chipotle is opening up next year as well, too bad I’ll be gone (I’m not sure if I have mentioned it yet on the blog, but I am a huge Chipotle fan and always go almost immediately when I go home).  There is a Moe’s Southwest Grille, which if you like burritos is a solid replacement, and they give you complimentary chips as a bonus.  If you’re ever tired of the Middlebury food, take a ride up to Burlington and I promise you will not be disappointed (also try the Burlington Bagel Bakery for breakfast, that’s great too).  All of these places, except for Al’s, are right on route 7 about an hour away, not bad at all.

On the TWC page, Eduardo Navas defined remix culture as, “a global activity consisting of the creative and efficient exchange of information made possible by digital technologies…[and] supported by the practice of cut/copy and paste.”  The article goes on to say it is taking parts from one or more existing works and putting them back together as a new work. This reminded me of the HitRecord website we looked at in class a few weeks ago.  Everything on that website was a remix.  Someone would submit something, and then all other users would be encouraged to put their own spin on it.  The article we read talks about the digitalization of media and how that has contributed to the cut, copy, and paste aspect of remix culture.  I am not sure how that feature works on HitRecord, as I have never used the website.  However, I have used iMovie before.  My computer is quite old, so I have, by today’s standards, an ancient version of the program.  However, when I was trying to edit one of my game tapes to put on Youtube, it was extremely easy.  It was the first time I was using anything of the like, and was able to very easily edit and make the game tape into what I wanted.  I am not incredibly technologically advanced and could use the program that effectively on my first attempt, which shows the improvement and ease of that media.  I am sure if I continued to use it, which I probably will to make more videos, I will be able to create more videos to edit and shape them into what I want, and maybe put my own addition into remix culture.

The TWC page goes on to talk about the new visions of authenticity and originality in our era.  This is an interesting debate for me.  I think if I created a great song, and someone put a couple of slight changes, and their version blew up, I would be quite upset.  On one hand, you have the satisfaction of seeing your work in the public sphere.  But on the other, you are sometimes not reaping the potential benefits.  I can see a musical artist certainly being upset about this sequence of events.  Regardless, I think the remix culture is great.  I think it gives everyone an opportunity to make something that they want and they can be really entertaining.  I really enjoyed many of the videos I watched as part of the home screening we had this week.  I love the videos with the Hitler scene.  I have seen this remix before, and went on Youtube to find it.  Lucky for me, I found 50 different renditions of this video.  I think I watched 45.  They are all so funny.  This one here is my favorite http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNZW4K3Y_SA.  It is Hitler reacting to Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls being hurt for this season’s playoffs, and I could not stop laughing.  Of the remixes on the website, I liked the clips spliced together from movies than the song remixes.  Although the Hitler videos all stem from the same movie, they are all about different subjects and thus are certainly original and authentic in their own rights.  Each video is different, but the same, as every vidder can make the video how they want it with the same template.  That is what makes them great.

I have written a great deal about the dining culture in Middlebury.  I think it is about time I give the dining halls their due.  I think we all do not appreciate enough that we have a delicious meal waiting for us three times a day and even more if we want.  We can all complain that the meals are too similar, that they should have longer hours, or that it is an abomination that there is no Cinnamon Toast Crunch because it doesn’t fit in the budget.

However, we have plenty to appreciate.  We do not have to swipe to get in, so we can literally go whenever we want.  You could go every hour if you want (which I know some of my friends who live in Ross do).  You can run in to grab an apple or banana, a quick PB and J, or fill up your nalgene.  That is very convenient, and a luxury that sometimes goes unnoticed.  Sometimes, however, I wish this was not the case.  I am a night owl, so I usually stay up late and wake up late.  On most occasions, I eat breakfast at my house before I go to campus and miss breakfast completely, and many times end up only going to the dining hall twice a day.  In this scenario, the swipe feature would be very helpful for me.  If maybe I could only pay for 15 meals a week, and then put the leftover swipes to the Grille or have money left over for late night meals, that would be an advantage for me.

Yet I digress.  Back to the dining halls.  Having Atwater open for lunch this year has been amazing.  It was open for every meal my freshman year, which was great (but wasn’t always the best because my friends always wanted to go there and I lived in Stewart so it was a hike).  Having it out of my life for two years made me appreciate it so much more this year.  I don’t even check the menus for lunch anymore, it is Atwater all the way.  Traffic is usually high around 12:15 or 1:30, so I avoid going at those times.  But it seems even a bad Atwater lunch would be a good lunch at any of the other dining halls.  The “Olive Garden” lunch, as I call it, is the best.  There is spaghetti, usually two different pasta sauces, garlic bread, and Caesar salad.  What more could you want?

Because Atwater is only open for lunch, Ross is usually the answer for dinner.  Even if the dinner is bad, there is always pizza at Ross.  Also, when they run out of the main course at Ross there is a good chance for chicken patties, which are divine.  I just like the atmosphere at Ross better.  I feel almost cramped in Proctor, and the flies in the fall were just too much for me. Although the sandwich bar is the best of the three, and the panini machines are really cool, Proctor would be ranked 3 of 3 out of the dining halls.  Atwater is a clear 1 and Ross a clear 2.  I am as guilty as anyone for complaining about the dining halls, but I should appreciate them more.  And I know I will when next Fall comes around and I’m stuck eating cereal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

I really enjoyed the readings this week.  I am on Twitter all the time, and liked reading about the technical aspects and how people in the public sphere use it in comparison to how my friends and I use it.  The Boyd article, through the use of the struggles in Egypt and Tunisia gave a great understanding of the uses of Twitter.  It was interesting to see the article say that Twitter is more of a place where people come together to find others with similar interests instead of a conversation between users who know each other.  The latter is exactly how I use Twitter, so it eye-opening for me to read this assertion.  The article continued to talk about some potential uses for Twitter, such as protests and news outbreaks.

Twitter is a great place to mobilize support for protests.  The #stopkony movement and #occupywallstreet both gained a great deal of support on Twitter and the Occupy movement is almost only known with the hash tag in front of it.  Boyd’s article discussed this phenomenon, in saying how Twitter in many cases can unite people who before did not know each other but have similar interests.  As we discussed in class, with Twitter if you click on a hash tag you can see a tweet from anyone, regardless of whether you follow them or not.  Facebook has a similar feature, but it only shows when a friend mentioned a particular topic.

As I suggested during the presentation, Boyd’s article in some respects suggested the idea to me that some people who just like being activists would find causes, such as Occupy Wall Street, and show up just to participate in the movement.  Someone in class brought up the example of people at the Occupy movement being interviewed and asked about their views on the subject, and really having no idea what they are even at the rally for.  That is one danger of this information being accessible to everyone, in that people who just want to be involved in a protest can do so regardless of whether they even know what the cause truly stands for.

The article also discussed how individuals are generally more successful than organizations in providing information flows.  This is a fair point, in that organizations have to fact check and be absolutely certain of whether their information is correct, whereas individuals do not have to worry about the same backlash (although as we talked about in class, it is not always clear what news is “correct”).  Also on Twitter, there is a lack of accountability so individuals can say anything they want and not have to worry about any consequences, whereas an organization obviously does.  For instance, after the Boston Bruins lost their playoff series when an African American player scored the winning goal, many Boston fans went on Twitter and wrote racial slurs against the player.  This was terrible, and another unfortunate mark on Boston’s already questionable racial tolerance.  This was all made possible because the people writing the tweets did not have to worry about accountability.  Think any of those people would say those things to the players face? I think not.

After all the blogs I’ve done so far, I still haven’t one on breakfast spots in Middlebury.  I touched on Rosie’s, which has an excellent breakfast, but there are other places in town that do a great job with breakfast.  Farmer’s Diner was a great place for breakfast.  It was delicious, but unfortunately went out of business.  Another plus was that it was open 24 hours, so any time of the day (or night) you could get a great meal.  Now the only restaurant open 24 hours a day is McDonalds…

Probably the best known breakfast place now is Midd Bagel.  It is very good, but is also a little pricey.  Nevertheless it, is worth it in my opinion.  Bacon, egg, and cheese on a plain bagel is extremely good.  If you are extremely hungry, add a pancake, but they are the biggest pancakes I think on earth so make sure you bring an appetite.  Also, make sure to bring cash because Midd Bagel does not take credit cards (I learned this the hard way.  I showed up with probably two dollars in cash, and simply could not pay for my food.  They gave me my meal, which was delicious, in return for a promise I would come back and pay.  I did so, and they gave me a cookie to show their gratitude.  Nice people at Midd Bagel).

Midd Bagel does have a very good bacon, egg, and cheese, but not the best in town.  I think they best is at Greg’s Meat Market, believe it or not.  Greg’s is notorious for putting a ridiculous amount of meat in their sandwiches, but they also do breakfast sandwiches.  The bacon is always cooked to perfection, and the cheddar cheese they use is phenomenal.  I usually get it on a white roll, and it is relatively cheap.  I have gotten more than my fair share of these for breakfast on Sunday mornings, and they hit the spot every time.

Steve’s Park Diner is another great place for breakfast.  It is just your typical diner, with a very solid breakfast menu.  My personal problem when I go out to breakfast is that I want everything.  I want scrambled eggs, I want fried eggs, I want pancakes, french toast, waffles, hash browns, sausage, bacon, toast, a bagel, a muffin, and cereal.  So, more or less, I want everything.  I always feel like I ordered the wrong thing or didn’t order enough, so more often than not I leave unsatisfied.  That does sound a little negative, especially when the breakfast options in Middlebury are quite good.  However, try a bacon, egg, and cheese on a white roll at Greg’s sometime, and I guarantee you will not be disappointed.

When I first thought of participatory culture, I thought of the expressions aspect that Jenkins talks about in his piece.  I thought of people going online and uploading videos and remixing those videos and things of the like.  I had never really considered the other aspects of the definition, because I had really never analyzed the topic before.  But after considering the idea, the other forms of participatory culture certainly made sense, although the “expression” form was the first to enter my mind.

I liked the analysis of “Hit Record” in class.  I had never heard of it before, but that was what I thought participatory culture to be.  People uploading their videos to a platform where others could view, edit, comment, possibly remix, and resubmit.  The website seems like a brilliant idea and can provide a platform for anyone to submit their work, with potential monetary gain in the cards as well.

My favorite part of the screening was actually right at the beginning, the “I’m on a Boat” remix.  I think Lonely Island is just hilarious, I love all their songs from “Jack Sparrow” with Michael Bolton to “I Just Had Sex” with Akon.  But the remix of that song with different inputs from all different people was just very cool to me.  I am not very effective working with videos like that, so the fact that they can be edited and spliced together to form a great final project is amazing.

I really like Jenkins definition of participatory culture.  Youtube is obviously option one for “creating and sharing one’s creations.”  However, Jenkins mentions there is “strong support” for these endeavors in participatory culture, while on Youtube support is not always what appears in the comment section.  Many commenters use the comment section to just put people down, lending almost the opposite of support, and sometimes the comment section has to be turned off (I actually have a youtube highlight of one of my games and someone commented “weak.”  That certainly did not feel like support in any respect).  Even for the comments of the video we watched in class about the Google glasses, one comment read “That is so cool” while another read “A great way for people to get hit by cars crossing the street.”  Participatory culture creates this sort of stimulating debate, providing views from all over the spectrum.

The mentorship aspect is another very important part of participatory culture.  Seeing the kid who learned how to skate from just watching on youtube was a perfect example.  I have used this feature countless times, from learning how to tie a tie to how to improve my low post game.  Jenkins definition also comments how participators feel like their contributions matters.  “Hit Record” is a perfect example of this phenomenon.  If you see your contributions in the hard copy of one of their productions, you know your work matters.  For me, even just seeing myself on youtube was pretty cool and I felt like I mattered just seeing my name in the title of a youtube video (and I felt like I mattered even more every time there was a new view on the video).

There are plenty of restaurants in the Middlebury area.  But there are two, Mister Ups and Two Brothers, that are simply the best.  I think for this week I will go through what I get for takeout from each place first, and then what I would get at each place when I eat in (first if I go with my friends, and then for when I go with my parents).

Mister Ups and Two Brothers are definitely a go-to for ordering out.  They are conveniently located, open until midnight, and not too expensive.  At Mister Ups, for takeout, there is only one option.  Thumbs and Toes are amazing.  If any of my commenters has any idea why they are called thumbs and toes instead of fingers and toes I would love to know why.  Half sweet and sassy and half barbecue is the way to go.  It is so delicious I could eat it every night.  At Two Brothers, or Two Bros as us in the know call it, the cheesesteak if my go-to.  The cheesesteak, called the “Famous Philly” is delicious.  It comes with American cheese and peppers and onions, but I go in a completely different direction.  I go no peppers and onions with cheddar cheese and its perfect.  Also, sweet potato fries on the side is a must.  They used to be a free substitution, but now it costs a little extra.  Totally worth it.  They come with a dipping sauce that they claim is honey mustard (I’ve asked) but it has to be something different its too good.

Now eating in is a different story.  When I am paying, I’ll usually split some thumbs and toes and then get a burger.  The burgers at Ups are great, and I recommend the bison burger (get the waffle fires on the side, they are free and delicious).  When I go with my parents, my appetite expands a little.  I’ll suggest nachos for the table, some thumbs and toes, and maybe even the salad bar in addition to my burger.  Thanks for coming mom and dad!

Now for Two Bros.  When I am paying, I’ll usually go with the cheesesteak because its pretty cheap and delicious.  When my parents are there, again I get far hungrier.  I might start with a salad (side Caesar is phenomenal) or some clam chowder.  I’ll again suggest nachos for the table, which are great.  Then I might go with the Shephard’s Pie or Santa Fe Tortellini.  These two restaurants are simply fantastic, and are perfect for almost any scenario.

Veronica Mars has gotten better and better the more we have watched it.  I didn’t like the first episode very much, and the second episode wasn’t much better, or so I thought.  I can see the direction the show is going at this point and am liking it more and more.  Veronica is constantly trying to solve mysteries, and will stop at almost nothing to do so.  That includes breaking laws and even breaking and entering.

There are many connections between Professor Stein’s essay on noir and the episode we watched last night.  The article starts by referencing ideas of millennials we have already looked at, saying they are trying to solve society’s challenges from their own perspective.  Veronica is still distraught that her mother left, and cannot accept that fact; she has to see her.  This desire also has her helping another boy, Justin, to find his long lost father.  Veronica is trying to do the right thing, which is help Justin find his father, but goes about it in ways of questionable morality.  Veronica follows around all the John Smith’s in the San Diego area, and takes pictures of all of them.  Then, when she thinks she has found the right one, she steals a letter from his car with handwriting she recognizes as his.  Finally, she breaks into the supposed John Smith’s house to try to find a clue.  This is all with the best intentions in mind, but unfortunately, many of those actions were quite illegal.  Veronica does solve the crime, and Justin is shocked to find his father is actually Julia Smith.  So Veronica does solve this challenge, but at what cost?  She broke several laws, and when the true identity of “John” Smith was truly revealed, it was a case Justin probably wished was never solved.

Revenge was a show I had never seen before, but the first episode was quite interesting.  Emily, or Amanda, is going to stop at nothing before she avenges everything that happened to her father.  Emily’s father was framed for his crimes, and is rotting away in prison when he is innocent.  Emily wants revenge, even when her father asks her to forgive.  As the article says, millennials attempt to bring a return to old-fashioned ethics and search for idealism.  Emily cannot find that with her father who she loved in prison.  As the discourse on noir goes on to say, noir looks at the “darker dimensions of society and the corruption of the very social structures meant to keep society moral.”  Emily’s father has fallen victim to a corrupt society that convinced her that her father was a killer when he truly was not.  When Emily discovers this, she wants everyone to pay for her loss.  She returns to the Hamptons with a new identity, and goes undercover to expose Conrad and Lydia.  Emily will achieve revenge for what happened to her father, and will do whatever it takes.  She did lose her father, but does that excuse lying and killing to get that revenge?

Here’s the thing about Middlebury: there are very few chains restaurants.  Subway and McDonalds.  And Dunkin Donuts, if you want to count that.  Other than those, there are not any chain restaurants for miles. There are always rumors that there are restaurants on the way, like a Chipotle for instance (on the subject of rumors, remember the rumors that Hermione was coming to Middlebury?  I was so excited.  Maybe I’ll be friends with Hermione!  However, as it turned out, the only Harry Potter thing associated with Middlebury is Quidditch.  Whenever anyone asked where I was going to school, and I said Middlebury, they would say oh the Quidditch school? Umm, yea).  However, there is are stipulations in place to keep these chains out.  Of course it would be nice to grab a burrito every once in a while, but I think these stipulations are for the best.  Restaurants like Rosie’s, which I have not profiled yet, might struggle if chain restaurants entered into the picture.  Chain restaurants can usually charge a lesser price for their items which can push local restaurants out of business because they cannot compete with their prices.  Also, a town filled with all chains (and not just restaurants but food stores and other stores of the like) ruins the integrity of the town.  Having little mom and pop stores around preserves the feel of Middlebury.

Now that I’m at it, I want to talk about Rosie’s.  Rosie’s is a little ways down route 7 south past McDonalds.  The menu is superb.  Breakfast is Rosie’s specialty, and the 4X4 is the best.  If my memory serves me right, it is 2 pancakes, 2 eggs, 2 pieces of bacon, and 2 sausage links.  It only costs around 7 dollars, and is very high quality, maybe the best breakfast in town for the price.  And the monkey bread for breakfast is amazing, I highly recommend it.  It is difficult to explain, but there is a card on each table that will do it more justice than I could encouraging you to get it, a message to which you should adhere to.  Rosie’s does not stop at breakfast.  They have a tremendous lunch and dinner menu, with the turkey dinner and pulled pork dinners both heaping portions costing under 10 dollars.  Sometimes, it is annoying there are no Burger Kings or Dairy Queens or Papa Ginos near campus, but that would ruin some of the feel of the town of Middlebury.  I’ll take my pulled pork dinner, after which I can’t eat for 2 days, and for me that’s saying something, over a Whopper any day of the week, and twice on Sunday (shout out to el pres).

http://www.rosiesrestaurantvt.com/

Twilight.  I have long heard about the success of the movie and the books.  What I had heard most about the series, in all honesty, was the crazed fans.  And as Melissa Click’s article says, it is the fangirls and “Twi-hards” (which I think is a hilarious name by the way) who I have heard about.  I have never watched Twilight, and although I have a younger sister, she has never gotten involved in the series (she is Harry Potter all the way, as am I).  I was excited to finally have an excuse to watch Twilight to see what all the fuss was about.

I did not mind the movie, and can definitely see why it has such a large following.  Click does a great job presenting her evidence and truly convinces the reader that fangirls are wrongly represented in many cases.  I am sure that the classifications of the fans as “ravenous” and “rabid” are a tad exaggerated, but at the same time were most likely not conjured out of thin air.  I have seen fans more or less attacking Robert Pattinson on the red carpet and the like, so it is not completely made up.  But Twilight has its benefits in that it is a series geared directly towards a female audience.  I said I did not mind the first movie, but it is definitely not geared to my age demographic.  Twilight gives young adolescent girls a series to relate to and enjoy.  In addition, it has created a great deal of response from these fangirls, especially on Twitter and in the form of fan fiction.  Because this group has never really been targeted, I think the fact that there has been such a response has surprised and shocked media members.  That shock has made the media over exaggerate the response, and perhaps confuse the popularity for insanity.  Click makes some great points, and I do agree that the media coverage is overblown.

If it is not obvious already, there is a “however” coming.  Click writes, “these comments position girls and women as unexpected and unwelcome media consumers.”  I could not disagree more.  Yes the media coverage is overblown, and perhaps the media is surprised at the mass reaction by young girls because it does not happen all too often.  Claiming they are unwelcomed media consumers is just incorrect I think.  There is no way any consumer is unwelcome.  Be it young, old, male, female, no consumer is ever unwelcome.  More and more projects will be now targeted at this demographic.  A number that will never be unwelcome is 35: in terms of the number of millions earned on Twilight’s first day in theaters.  The media may have been surprised, but I don’t think they were attacking girls and women by any stretch.  They saw crazed young girls infatuated with a series and exaggerated it to sell papers.  Which always happens in the media without fail.  I think the media in general is who Click should target if that is her argument, and not to say these consumers are being unfairly attacked.  I enjoyed Click’s article and agree to a degree, but some of her claims were just too farfetched for me.